Labyrinth 3: Gods' play

Chapter 8

  CHAPTER 8

Funnily enough, in the end it wasn't Isaac the one Felix should be worried about not keeping Ruby safe, but Ruby himself.
Isaac's plan was to wound the wolf severely and for double caution, tie him down as well. Only then could Ruby be escorted into the forest by two people capable of fighting. Ruby disagreed with this plan right away. His reasoning was that this wolf certainly won't trust us if we hurt it first. The rest of us, Felix especially, tried saying that it could still work and that Ruby's idea was far too dangerous.
But after a very long discussion of what we should do, Ruby and a few other people that sided with his idea won. In exchange however, everyone's prior goal was to protect Ruby. Some walked by his side, some a few meters away, some hid in the trees or bushes, but everyone's task was to keep their sight on the wolf and make sure Ruby gets out of this without a scratch.

The day this was supposed to take place, Ruby walked first. The wolf would become aggressive the moment he'd see anyone else so Ruby thought it was best, if he went first and tried calming it down right away.
Felix and Jared were the closest guards to him, walking almost by his side. I was assigned to the side guards, a group of people which stayed a few meters behind Ruby.

"You can still change your mind if you want to," I heard Felix say to Ruby.
"I'll be fine. I might be blind but I can use my other senses just fine. And I can always use my powers," from his voice alone I could tell just how much calmer Ruby was about this than Felix, "so please, don't worry about me."

A low growl came from the depths of the forest, sending shivers down my spine. Ruby looked scared as well, though I knew he already expected this. The beast itself appeared not long after, its amber eyes already staring at us furiously. I was interested to see what Ruby would do or say to calm this creature down. I was more curious to see if itd work. I clenched the handle of my weapon even tighter. If I had to protect Ruby, I sure as hell will.

However, when the wolf saw Ruby it froze in its steps. All this time, the only emotions I saw in this animal's eyes were anger, hatred, aggression. But now, its eyes were staring at Ruby, widened in surprise.
"I knew Ruby was good with animals but I didn't know he was that good," said Ross, who was along the side guards with me. All I could respond with was a nod.
It was obvious nobody knew what was going on, not even Ruby. Though I couldn't see his expression well, it was clear he was confused, so he wasn't doing this with one of his powers.
the wolf laid down, though it looked more like a painful, humiliated curl to me. It started whimpering quietly and turned its head down, so I couldn't see much of his face.
Suddenly, there was a loud, strong wind. I had to cover my eyes so it wouldn't blow dirt in my eyes. Felix grabbed Ruby by the arm, ready to pull him away if something bad happens. Both of them did start walking away once it got so bad, they couldn't stand it. The wind was howling, howling like a wolf. It threw air, earth and pebbles in our faces.
"Hide behind the trees!" yelled Isaac, but the wind almost entirely overpowered his voice. However, the trees helped. The trunks protected us from having anything more thrown to our faces. I waited for it to die out and see what would happen. I looked at Ruby who was a few meters away from me, Felix still right next to him. Ruby still looked like he didn't understand what had happened. I could tell by his expression just how much he was struggling to make sense out of this. I was too.
Did we devillianize it? But if so, how come? What was the reason behind this, why did he start acting like that after he saw Ruby?
Or maybe this wasn't devillization, maybe it was a new attack we've never seen from this villain before. But even so, why did seeing Ruby trigger that? And what was up with that behaviour?
Nothing made any sense.

After a few minutes, the wind stopped. Automatically, we all peeked from behind our trees to look at the wolf. But there was no wolf there anymore. Instead, there was a boy lying there, his head tucked under his arms.
Without saying anything, Isaac walked up to him first.
"What's your name kid?" he asked, causing the boy to lift his head up. Jared was right when he assumed this wasn't an adult, he looked around Ross's age to me.
"I'm Koby," the boy replied.
"Tell me, are you a villain?"
"No!" Koby said defensively, "I mean, not anymore."
"Well then, I hope you won't mind explaining to us what just happened, and anything else we could find useful."

CHAPTER 9
October 13th 2016